[Update](or they will ban you, WTF again)
Oh no, this just can't be. This CAN'T be why Petraeus got his medal for Valor. This can't be why he got the Bronze Valor Star while so many others actually died for it. The Repugs CAN'T have dummied him up with SUCH an obvious lie, right? It seems impossible.
I may be the first to ask and insist in this detail in the diaries I just linked to, but this question is growing across the Internet. It will become unavoidable. It's part of a scandal that is so incredibly offensive to military people they don't talk about it to outsiders, I think.
General David Petraeus received a medal in 2003 for combat heroism. Linked is yet another example of real combat heroism. Heroism. The following is the only incident I can find where then Major General David Petraeus came under enemy fire. But I'll bet if I worked spin-control at the Pentagon I'd be nuancing some action reports right now to bend a few more bullets the general's way. From USA Today, March 30, 2003
....stronger-than-expected Iraqi resistance continues. An Iraqi mortar round landed less than 50 yards away as two top U.S. generals were conferring here Sunday on the next phase in the U.S. offensive.
No one was injured by the round that landed just to the side of a checkpoint where Army Lt. Gen. William Scott Wallace, commander of the V Corps, and 101st commander Maj. Gen. David Petraeus were reviewing maps on the hood of a Humvee.
If that's it, that's just offensive and sad.
One of these four gentleman had to recommend General Petraeus for that Valor Star. And frankly I think we have to get to the bottom of this before stories start changing and records start going the way of GOP emails.
Lt. Gen. David McKiernan: Coalition Forces Land Component (Army)
Brig. Gen. Gary Harrell: Coalition Forces Special Operations Component (Special operations) Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, Rangers, Army Aviation, Air Force Special Ops
Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace: Army V Corps
Lt. Gen. James Conway: Commander, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Once again (take a look at my diaries) there is an enormous difference between that Bronze Star for Valor and the Bronze Star for meritorious service. I'm not a military person, but I'm finding out that to them it is huge. Here is how one fellow put it (sarcastically):
"We know the difference," said Army 1st Sgt. Gerald Wolford, a Silver Star recipient. "If we see a Bronze Star and there's no V on it, we're, like, 'OK, it doesn't mean you did anything. Go home, tell your story, get your Bronze Star license plate, but just realize that my private who didn't get anything did more than you did.' "
"Valor" means a claim that you are in the company of people who sacrificed their own lives or showed themselves willing to do so in a heroic combat action. If that medal - which is given to so many families in lieu of the return of a loved one - was used to pump up the reputation of David Petraeus, I think would be just shameful.
Oh, and guess who has the ultimate responsibility to see that medals are handed out fairly in Iraq for the entire corps now. That's right: it's General Petraeus - General Petraeus who didn't see combat until 2003 and, so far as we know, never discharged his weapon at any enemy and only came within 50 yards of a mortar shell.
Not exactly a deadly sniper making a mile-long shot while bullets sailed past him or a Casey Sheehan is our General Petraeus.